Tools – A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogyhttp://www.krishocker.com
the genealogy & family research site of Kris HockerThu, 21 Sep 2017 13:20:56 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.239400576Tuesday’s Tip: Search Mailing Listshttp://www.krishocker.com/tuesdays-tip-search-mailing-lists/
Tue, 07 Jan 2014 12:00:10 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=7175Mailing lists can be a great tool for collaboration with other researchers in your area of interest. They can also be a great source information. But you don’t necessarily need to be on a list in order to benefit from it.

The RootsWeb mailing lists are archived—and searchable.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about a series of emails from several years ago which included marriage and death transcriptions from a Lancaster County newspaper as a possible source for information. But I haven’t been able to find them in my inbox. I’ve changed computers since then, and those old emails apparently didn’t make it to the new computer.

Luckily, I remember which mailing list they were from. A quick search and I was able to pull up a list. Here are links to the archived emails for information from the 1848 Lancaster Intelligencer:

This information was transcribed by Maria Campbell and sent to the PALANCAS-L mailing list in 2010. For more examples with different years and newspapers, check out the archives of the PALANCAS-L mailing list or search for your ancestor.

]]>7175Create a Calendarhttp://www.krishocker.com/create-a-calendar/
Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:00:25 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=5856Create a calendar for any year and country.
]]>5856Filling the Gaps Between Censuseshttp://www.krishocker.com/filling-the-gaps-between-censuses/
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:00:25 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=5713[…]]]>Census records are an invaluable source of information for family historians and genealogists. They are a go-to, record-of-choice for me when I start new research. However, they only occur every ten years. That leaves a lot of time uncovered. Even if you’re lucky and your research location includes state census records, there are still going to holes that need to be filled somehow.

In the Census

Take for instance, the example of my Hocker relatives in Cocalico Township. The census records for Cocalico Township for 1800 through 1820 include the following Hockers:

1800

Frederick Hocker

1810

Frederick Hocker

John Hauker

George Hocker

1820

John Hocker

Jacob Houker

In Tax Records

The tax lists from Cocalico Township fill in the years between the census and provide glimpses of additional Hocker men. The Hockers listed in the township include:

1800

Frederick Hocker

George Hocker

1801

Frederick & George Hocker

1802

Frederick & George Hocker

1803

Frederick & George Hocker

Jacob Hocker

1805

Jacob Hacker

Frederick Hocker

George Hocker

John Hocker

1806

George Hocker

John Hocker

Frederick Hocker

1807

Frederick Hocker

George Hocker

George Hocker

John Hocker

1808

George Hocker

Frederick Hocker

John Hocker

1809

Frederick Hocker

John Hocker

George Haker, inmate*

1810

Frederick Hocker

John Hocker

George Hocker, inmate

George Hocker, inmate

1811

John Hocker

Frederick Hocker

George Hocker

George Hocker Jr.

1812

John Hocker

Frederick Hocker

George Hocker

George Hocker, inmate

1813

John Hocker

George Hocker

George Hocker (crossed out)

Jacob Hocker, freeman*

1814

John Hacker

1816

Jacob Hocker

John Hocker

1817

Jacob Hacker

John Hacker

1818

Jacob Hacker

John Hacker

1819

Jacob Hacker

John Hocker

1820

John Hacker

Going through these listings you can see when men other than those named in the census records make an appearance. A Jacob Hocker first appears in the census in 1820. But the name appears in the tax records in 1803 and 1805, then disappears until 1813 when it appears on the tax lists as a freeman.

Do these records refer to the same man? Probably not. First, there’s the separation of 10 years between the appearances. Secondly, the first Jacob was a married land owner—the records indicate he owned 100 ares, while the second was an unmarried man.

Conclusions

Correlating these records with others—church records (birth, baptism, confirmation, communion, marriage and death), estate files and wills, deeds, etc.—will flesh out the story even more. Putting it all together, I can conclude that Frederick and George were probably brothers—sons of Johan Adam Hacker. Their youngest brother Jacob purchased about 100 acres in 1803, then sold it to Frederick in the spring of 1806. Jacob and his wife Elizabeth likely moved across the river to York County around this time.

Frederick’s eldest son John came of age about 1802 and likely married by 1804. He appears in tax records starting in 1805. His next oldest son George appears in the 1810 tax record, but I don’t know if it’s him or his uncle in the 1810 census. Without the tax record, I wouldn’t have even known there were two men named George in Cocalico Township in 1810—and may have attributed children to one or the other that didn’t belong to them.

Frederick Hacker died in 1812. John refused his father’s property. His younger brother George accepted it, but didn’t—or was unable to—keep it. George sold the property in 1813. Meanwhile, their younger brother Jacob, who’d come of age in 1812, was listed in the 1813 tax list as a freeman.

Uncle George, who disappears from the tax record about this time, too, starts appearing in Church records in Schaefferstown (just to the north) by 1815 and is included in the 1820 census for Lebanon Township.

Tax records can help to fill in the holes and provide clues on where and when to look for other documents. A change from being listed as freeman to not might tell you when a man got married. An appearance in the tax list might also tell you when and where to look for deed records. Tax records won’t tell you everything you want to know, but they can help you build the story and verify that you’ve got the right person in other records.

Have you found your ancestors in tax records? What did you learn about them?

* Inmate and freeman are terms used in Pennsylvania tax records. An inmate is not a prisoner or someone locked up. In this case, it is a married man who owns no land. A freeman is a single man. You’ll sometimes see “single man” as a heading in the records, too. All men in the tax records are at least 21 years of age.

]]>5713Chronicling Americahttp://www.krishocker.com/chronicling-america/
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:26:15 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=5246Search America’s historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922.
]]>5246Scottish Mining Websitehttp://www.krishocker.com/scottish-mining-website/
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:00:18 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=4984I learned a lot about mining from the Scottish Mining website—including the fact that Alexander Buchanan died as a result of injuries from a coal pit accident.
]]>4984National Library of Scotland—Mapshttp://www.krishocker.com/national-library-of-scotland-maps/
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:24 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=4980I found a couple neat sites while doing my James Buchanan research. The National Library of Scotland has Ordinance Maps of Scotland, 1898-1904 online. Very useful for looking up all those locations. It even shows coal pits on the map.
]]>4980How to Use the Online Land Records at the PA State Archiveshttp://www.krishocker.com/how-to-use-the-online-land-records-at-the-pa-state-archives/
http://www.krishocker.com/how-to-use-the-online-land-records-at-the-pa-state-archives/#commentsTue, 03 Jan 2012 13:00:48 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=4561If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I use land records—a lot! I’ve mentioned warrants, patents and deeds in a number of posts. They’re some of my favorite record groups. And best of all, depending on where your ancestor lived, the records may be available online for free.

This blog post is going to explain how to use the land records available online at the PA State Archives. These records are organized by record and then either by county or volume and surname. They have been scanned and placed online as PDFs by page. The records include:

Warrant Registers

Copied Survey Books

Patent Indexes

Patent Tract Name Index

Indexes of Selected Original (Loose) Surveys

East Side Applications (Register)

West Side Applications (Register)

Philadelphia Old Rights (Index)

Old Rights Index: Bucks and Chester Counties

New Purchase Register

Original Purchases Register

Last Purchase Register

Luzerne County Certified Townships

Donation Lands

Depreciation Land Register

Warrantee Township Maps

Melish-Whiteside Maps

I’m going to focus on the records in bold.

To understand how to use these records, it’s important to understand how the process worked in Colonial Pennsylvania.1 Technically, William Penn owned all of the land in Pennsylvania. A settler would apply to the land office for land. Before 1687, these applications were typically oral and not recorded. After 1687, they were recorded in the minute books of the Commissioners of Property. The minutes can be found in Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 19 and Third Series, Volume 1.

After the application, a warrant was issued to authorize a survey of the land. The warrants I’ve seen specify the name of the warrantee, the location of the desired property (sometimes rather generally), the amount of land, the quit-rent—and sometimes the date from which the rent commences—and the price per acre. The issuance of a warrant, however, does not mean that the applicant actually owned the property.

When a warrant was issued, orders were sent to the surveyor to survey the property and draw a map of the courses and bounds, the acreage, and the neighbors. After a survey was done, the applicant would have to pay for the land and provide evidence of their improvements to the property. In viewing the survey books, there are sometimes multiple surveys of a tract of land. Sometimes the original applicant failed to follow through, sometimes they sold their “rights” to someone else prior to the patent, or sometimes subsequent owners required a re-survey.

Once the survey was complete and the land paid for, a warrant of return was sent to the surveyor general, who in turn sent the survey to the secretary’s office so that a patent could be issued. The patent is the document that transferred ownership of the property to the settler.

So, warrants, patents and surveys deal with transfers of land between the Pennsylvania land office and the settler. Records of land transferred between individuals will be found—if recorded—at the Recorder of Deeds for the appropriate county. This may not be the same as the modern county. For more information on the historical transformation of the counties, take a look at the Genealogical Map of the Counties.

Patents

Ulrich Hoober, Patent Book A11:408

If you know that your ancestor received a patent for their property, you can begin with the Patent Indexes. How would I know that, you ask. Often, deeds—sometimes several transactions removed from the patent—will reference the original patent for the property. You may have seen something like:

It being the same tract of land which the late Proprietaries of Pennsylvania by their Patent dated the twenty eighth day of September A. Dom. 1744 and recorded at the Rolls Office at Philadelphia in Patent Book A vol 11 page 408 &c did grant & confirm to Ulrich Hoover his heirs and assigns forever…2

If you haven’t seen a reference like this, but want to know if your ancestor was an early landholder, the Patent Indexes are still a good place to start. The Patent Indexes will not only provide the patent book, volume and page number for a patent, but will also identify the name of the original warrantee and the date of the warrant. This will make it possible to locate the warrant and survey if your ancestor was not the original warrantee.

First, go to the Patent Indexes page on the State Archives site. The records are arranged by series, which are arranged by date. Choose the series you want to review.

Next find the list of pages for the first letter of your ancestor’s surname. Be prepared to check multiple spellings if they apply. I’ve found “Brenneman” listed under both “B” and “P.”

Check the available pages to see if your ancestor is listed. Each page is a separate PDF file, so you may need to download and open each file in Adobe Reader if your browser doesn’t have a plugin to view PDF files.

Each listing includes: series and volume, date of patent, page number, patentee name, area in acres and perches, name of warrantee, name of tract (if available), date of warrant, and county.

If you find your ancestor, make note of the series, volume, page and date of the patent. You’ll need this information if you want to order the patent from the Archives. You should also note the name of the original warrantee, the date of warrrant and the county. This will be necessary for the next step.

In the image above, we have a patent for Woolrick Hoober, dated 20 Sep 1744, with 226 acres in Patent Book A11, page 408. We can also see that he is listed as the original warrantee for a warrant dated 19 Sep 1744 in Lancaster County.

Warrants

Woolerick Hoober, Warrant H338, Lancaster County

Now that you have the name of the warrantee, warrant date and county, you can look-up the warrant and survey information in the Warrant Registers. These registers cover approximately 70% of all land in Pennsylvania for 1733—1957. If the warrant date is 1733 or later, follow these instructions.

Go to the Warrant Registers page on the State Archives site. The registers are first arranged by county. Click on the link to the appropriate county.

The pages for each register are listed first alphabetically by the first initial of the warrantee’s surname, then chronologically.

Check the pages to see if the warrantee is listed.

Each listing should include: warrant number, warrantee, type of warrant, quantity of land, warrant location, date of warrant, date of return, acreage returned, name(s) of patentee(s), where the patent is recorded (book, volume, page), and where the survey was copied (book, volume, page). Sometimes there are multiple patentees or surveys for each warrant. Sometimes the warrant was vacated and no information is available.

Woolrick Hoober’s listing tells us that he was issued a warrant (#338) to accept a survey of 226 acres in Conestoga Township, dated 19 Sep 1744. The patent was issued 19 Sep 1744 on 226 acres. The patent is listed in Book A11, page 408 and the survey is in book D88, page 127.

Each survey should provide either a description of the metes and bounds or a drawing of the tract’s boundaries with the calls and the names of the tract’s neighbors. The survey also usually shows the date of the survey, name of surveyor, who the land was surveyed for, the date of the warrant, and the warrantee.

Ulrich’s survey shows that John Line, Jacob Hoober, and John DeHoof were his neighbors at the time of the survey—20 Oct 1728.

Warrantee Township Maps

Maps for some of the townships were drawn up showing all of the original landholders—those who received the property directly from the Proprietors or the Commonwealth—within the context of the present-day townships. Unfortunately, not every township was mapped.

Pequea Warrantee Township Map

To find a map of the township were your ancestor held property, you need to know the relationship between the historical township and the modern township. For instance, Ulrich Hoober’s tract was in Conestoga township when he received the patent in 1744. Two modern townships—Conestoga and Pequea—make up the historical 1729 township.3 You can see Ulrich Hoober’s property in the context of the township’s other properties in the Pequea Warrantee Township map.

Don’t forget, using this information you can order a copy of the land warrant or patent from the Pennsylvania State Archives. If you know the reference—warrant number, warrantee and county of warrant for warrants or patentee, patent date, book, volume and page number for patents—you can order an uncertified copy fairly inexpensively. If you don’t have that information, you can also order a search by the staff archivist. That, of course, will cost you more. Warrantee township maps are also available for sale.

If you can visit the state archives in Harrisburg, you can use the information you found through the online records to locate the documents on microfilm, saving time looking up the references so you can research other records.

That’s a fairly quick explanation of warrants, patents and surveys at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. These instructions should work for most properties. However, there will be exceptions (aren’t there always?). If you have questions, leave a comment or drop me a line. I’d be glad to help however I can.

Note: modified to include new PHMC screenshot.

]]>http://www.krishocker.com/how-to-use-the-online-land-records-at-the-pa-state-archives/feed/144561Friday Finds: Free Online Census Imageshttp://www.krishocker.com/friday-finds-online-census-images/
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:00:47 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=4175The United States Federal Census is one of the most widely used resources for genealogists. Online access to the census indices and images is available through a variety of subscription services like Ancestry.com, Archives.com, and HeritageQuest and free sites like FamilySearch.org. But did you know that the census microfilm images are also available online for free through the Internet Archive?

You can browse the census microfilm online from the comfort of your home. You can even download a reel and view it as a PDF on your computer. You can’t search the schedules for your ancestor—there is no index. But if you’re short on cash, here’s a free and convenient alternative to visiting the nearest NARA office or genealogy library.

I was finally able to learn the census schedules from Conestoga, Lampeter, Strasburg and Sadsbury townships from 1820 are missing by viewing the microfilm roll online—something Ancestry’s customer service department apparently did not know.

]]>4175Friday Finds: An Old German Midwife’s Recordhttp://www.krishocker.com/friday-find-an-old-german-midwifes-record/
http://www.krishocker.com/friday-find-an-old-german-midwifes-record/#commentsFri, 10 Jun 2011 12:00:30 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=3861[…]]]>Update (7/4/2011): I’ve added the possible names of children and their parents where I have information. As you can see there’s more to add. If you have information that fits, please send me an email. Thanks.An Old German Midwife’s Record, 1795-1815

Susanna (Rohrer) Müller (aka Miller) lived in Martic (now Providence) Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and served as a midwife from 1792 through 1815 when she died. She kept a careful record of her practice. It included the date, the number of children, the name of the family, and how much she charged them in pounds, shilling and pence. She scrupulously tried to capture the family name as she heard it. This record is a wonderful find for a genealogist—both as a possible source for birth information and as a German speakers record of both German and English names.

Scrolling through the pages, I recognized many, many names from my deed research in the Martic and Conestoga townships area. The following is a list of Huber/Hoover families she served and the relevant dates:

Some of the entries indicate an occupation. I’ve translated them, as follows:

Schreiner = carpenter

Maurer = mason

Schumacher = shoemaker

Wewer = weaver?

Unfortunately, the entries do not include the names of the babies she delivered. However, using other documents that provide approximate birth dates with the dates in this record could help determine exact birth dates for children born in this area in the late 1790s and early 1800s.

You never know what you’ll find online. I’m certainly glad that I followed this search result!

]]>http://www.krishocker.com/friday-find-an-old-german-midwifes-record/feed/63861Friday Finds: Maryland Historical Magazinehttp://www.krishocker.com/friday-finds-maryland-historical-magazine/
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:00:23 +0000http://www.krishocker.com/?p=3306[…]]]>I was recently going through the stacks of materials distributed around my “office” when I came across a document I’d ordered from PERSI—”Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for Elizabeth Township District [Washington County]” from the Maryland Historical Magazine, Volume 13. I had ordered this because copies I had made at the Pennsylvania State Library were difficult to read; I was hoping for a clearer copy.

What I found made me unhappy. The copies I’d made were not from volume 13, number 2; they were from volume 13, number 3. So, here I have a nice stack of reading that doesn’t include the information that I was seeking. My bad for not clearly marking each photocopy with its full source citation!

Maryland Historical Magazine, Volume 13, Number 3, page 245 PDF

I went online to see if I could find somewhere I could order copy of the pages from the correct volume. Instead I found a page on the Maryland Historical Society’s website that seemed to imply that they were providing online access to the periodical.

Wow! I logged in and sure enough volumes 1, number 1 through volume 99, number 4 are available online as PDFs through a joint project of the Maryland Historical Society and Maryland State Archives. Volumes 101-104 are available to members of the Maryland Historical Society. The volumes have been indexed, so you can search them.

Online viewing through the PDF viewer I have was not optimal—the text appears jagged and bitmapped. Opening the file in Preview on the Mac (an option in the viewer) was similar. However, downloading the file and viewing in the Adobe PDF viewer solved the problem—crisp, clear text! I search for “Hoover” in the PDF and it skipped to the first notation (see blue highlight).

I’m so glad I decided to clean up a bit and discovered my mistake. It lead to a wonderful online resource!